School library media specialist, youth services librarian, information management resource officer... We have many titles but we are all technically librarians.

Monday, March 05, 2007

The library and the scrotum

I have been following the controversy over The Higher Power of Lucky (the Newbery Award winner). This book has been banned from libraries because of the use of the word scrotum. Not even a human scrotum but a dog scrotum. One blogger wrote "It’s right there, on page one. Our heroine overhears a dramatic story about a man whose dog was bit on the scrotum by a rattlesnake. "

Why is this such an issue? It is a dog.....maybe the author could've used a different word-privates-but would that have solved the problem.

I bet you could get a huge influx of teens to read this book if the controversy continues...